Beef Curry made from scratch

What's on the menu tonight? Below is a simple delicious meal you can easily make at home from scratch.

I am using an oyster blade steak from the meat pack I received from my local farmers at Ravens Creek. Beautiful meat that has been raised on green pastures free from the use of chemicals.

Oyster blade is great to fry, grill or put on the BBQ. It has cartilage which gives it a wonderful natural flavouring as well as providing a hydrating agent that keeps the meat nice a tender. The actual cartilage bit may go a bit crunchy (some people may hate that, I personally LOVE it!) when frying it or cooking it on the BBQ. In a casserole however this is just perfect to keep the meat moist and succulent through the longer cooking process. Not to mention that the cartilage is rich in amino acids which build collagen. Yep that stuff to plump out those wrinkles!!

Why not make your own curry pastes at home. They are simple to make, but most importantly you can control what is in it. Most commercially made curry pastes contain unhealthy oils like canola, sunflower, etc. These oils are not good for us and are best to be avoided.

In a mortar and pestle grind all the spices, garlic, ginger and lemon juice into a paste.

Heat the coconut oil on medium-high heat. Cook the meat in two batches until browned (2-3) minutes. Place meat into a bowl.

Reduce the heat to medium. Gently fry the spice mix for 2 minutes, throw in the browned meat, tomato paste, stock and veggies.

Reduce to a low heat. Cook with the lid on for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove the lid and cook for another 15 minutes.

If you want add some raita on top. Just finely slice the cucumber and stir into the yoghurt and place on top.

Serve with rice, potatoes, pita bread or whatever you like! Garish with coriander.

The Stock Merchant range of stocks are very handy to have in the pantry. Although homemade is best, and definitely what I recommend, sometimes you may have run out or forgotten to take it out of the freezer in time. So having some of the The Stock Merchant stocks on hand can be very useful indeed. This is the only brand that I have found that use free range bones to make their stocks, and do not add in any nasty additives. Plus they taste AWESOME!